Audio sound and loudspeaker systems often require real-time, live audio inputs for paging and making other announcements. Microphones and telephones are two examples of devices that often provide these inputs. Unlike microphones, telephones are ubiquitous in our society in that they are available in many non-entertainment venues, such as offices, warehouses, retail shops and the like. As such, telephone equipment is a preferred live input source in voice paging and announcement systems.
Background art audio sound and loudspeaker systems often obtain live audio inputs from output ports provided by a standard telephone system. Typically, these telephonic output ports meet established standards for electrical characteristics and functions for a telephone system. However, since the target usage of these telephone ports is for telephonic communications, there is a need in the art for some adaptation of the telephone signal before applying that signal to an audio sound and loudspeaker system.
Some background art telephone equipments do provide outputs for direct connection to audio sound and loudspeaker systems. However, many times the features available on these background art telephone equipment outputs do not allow for some desirable features for an audio system operations such as muting of background music during an audio page, or routing audio signals to distinct areas of a facility. In addition, the feature set and electrical characteristics of these background art telephone equipment outputs often vary from one telephone equipment manufacturer to another. This situation can make it difficult to plan the proper equipment interface to an audio sound and loudspeaker system.
In the background art, the only input in the telephone interface device that can detect the DTMF tones is the general paging input. Other inputs may not be connected to sources that produce DTMF tones. For example, tone triggers or the night ring input detects an incoming ring but never answers a call. In these instances, the input has associated with it a user programmable zone group. When the input becomes active, its associated zone group is engaged and determines where the audio will be delivered.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a paging system some adaptation of the telephone signal before applying that signal to an audio sound and loudspeaker system; features for an audio system operations such as muting of background music during an audio page, or routing audio signals to distinct areas of a facility; and that provides consistent input/output (I/O) interfaces.